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riefing reporters today (5 Sep) UN experts raised alarms over the increasing severity of global food crises, revealing that the number of people facing catastrophic hunger has more than doubled in the past year.

In a press briefing on the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises, Máximo Torero, Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said "the number of people facing or projected to face catastrophic phase IPC, Phase 5, more than doubled from 705,000 in five countries and territories in 2023 to 1.9 million in four countries or territories in 2024." He highlighted that this marked the highest levels recorded in the Global Food Crises report, driven by conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, as well as El Niño-induced drought and rising domestic food prices.

Adding to the urgency, Arif Husain, Chief Economist at the World Food Program (WFP), explained the deepening crises, noting that “the depth of hunger is increasing.” He pointed out that there are now "two and a half times more people in IPC Phase 5" compared to last year, referring to the catastrophic hunger phase. Husain also underscored the increase in displacement in countries covered by the report, with “99 million people displaced in 2024, compared to 90 million in 2023.”

Victor Aguayo, Director of Child Nutrition and Development at UNICEF, focused on the plight of children, warning that "child wasting is at critical levels in eight countries," including Cameroon, Chad, and Yemen. Aguayo also emphasized the extreme situation in Gaza, describing it as “one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in history.”

He elaborated that over 90 percent of children in Gaza are subsisting on extremely poor diets, consuming at best only two types of food per day under conditions of "severe toxic stress." Aguayo added that "well over 50,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition and need immediate treatment."

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